The John Perry Murder Case: Broadway Is My Beat (February 28, 1953)

“The John Perry Murder Case” is an episode of Broadway Is My Beat, the old-time radio show, first broadcast February 28, 1953. Listen free on Stupid Potato.

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What happens

Detective Danny Covert finds John Perry, owner of a pet shop, stabbed and dying on the floor of his store. Covert investigates Perry's troubled relationships, discovering that a week earlier, a youth named Mickey King vandalized the shop in retaliation for Perry firing a young girl named Norma Ford. As Covert pieces together the case, he must determine whether Mickey's confession to the vandalism connects to Perry's murder, or if someone else had reason to kill the unpopular shop owner.

Broadway and surrounding streets of New York City, including a pet shop, a drugstore, police headquarters, and a juvenile detention hall, during a February winter.

Characters: Detective Danny Covert, John Perry, Harry Crane (landlord), Mickey King, Norma Ford, Detective Muggles, Dr. Siski, Tartaglia

Listen for: The atmospheric descriptions of Broadway at dawn and night; the moral complexity of young Mickey King's situation and his relationship with Norma Ford; Norma's shocking confession and her troubled family history.

Written from the episode itself; it never gives away the ending. Every recording is remastered for the stream: cleaned of rumble, hiss and mains hum (and the old TV whine where we found it), then levelled in two passes to steady broadcast loudness, so one show is never quieter than the next.